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(N0 ModeL) VAN GIBSON.

AUTOMATIC CLASP AND LIFTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIU PLATES..

RLE.

Patented June 2, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RANSFORD E. VAN GIBSON, OF BROOKLYN, NETV YORK.

AUTOMATIC CLASP AND LIFTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 319,359, dated June 2, 1885.

Application filed January 1'19, 1895.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Ransronn E. VAN Gin- SON, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Holders for Photographic Plates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, making a part of this specification.

My invention relates to devices for manipulating photographic plates. Its object is to facilitate handling the plate without staining the hands in the developing process, and to provide means for the support of the plate both in the bath and in its after treatment without touching the sensitive film upon its surface.

It consists of a double clamp, as hereinafter described, whose arms are combined with a spring operating to draw them together so that they may embrace automatically between them the opposite edges of the plate, and so bent as to overlap slightly its under face without con tact whatever with the opposite sensitized surface, and which will afford a handle for lifting the plate from the bath, lugs to prevent a contact of the plate with the bottom of the developing-tray, and a support for the plate when tilted up on edge for inspection or for touchmg up.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 illustrates my improved manipulating device attached to a glass plate and serving as a support for the plate when set up on edge for inspection. Fig. 2 is an edge View of the de vice when attached toaplate dipped in abath, the developing-tray being in section. Fig. 3 illustrates a spiral coil substituted for a rubber band as a clamping-spring for the device. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the device made of wire, and Fig. 5 illustrates in perspective a modification in which the inner ends of the arms are hinged together.

In Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings my manipulating device is illustrated as constructed of a single flat strip of metal, A, bent or doubled in the middle to form two arms, B B, of equal length. These arms are automatically drawn together with more or less power by means of an elastic band, 0, preferably of rubber, made to encircle the two arms near to their angle of (No model.)

divergence. The outer end of each arm is bent inward sufficiently to form a slight lip, D, adapted to engage the under side of the edge of the photo-plate G, interposed between the arms, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings.

In doubling the strip A an eye or loop, E, is formed at the bend to serve as a convenient handle for the device, and to prevent the elastic band C from slipping off. A coiled metallic spring, 0, may be substituted for the rub her band 0 to encircle the arms, as shown in Fig. 3, or be inserted between them, as shown at G in Fig. 5.

Various other ways of applying springs to the arms to draw them automatically together will suggest themselves to mechanics skilled in the art, and I contemplate the use of any of these well-known equivalents.

The arms B B may be made of any suitable material, and I contemplate constructing them separately and pivoting them together at one end by a hinge-joint, as illustratedat Fin Fig. 5 of the drawings, their automatic tension upon an interposed plate being obtained by means of a spring or springs, as above described. X'Vhen constructed of a Hat plate or strip, A, I prefer to perforate the same with one or more openings, H. (See Fig. 1.) The arms may likewise be made of round or flat wire, woven in suitable shape (see Fig. 4.) instead of being constructed of a simple llat plate or strip, as shown in Fig. 1.

In the use of the device the photographic plate G- to be manipulated is interposed between the arms B B,which are spread apart so that their ends may engage the opposite edges of the plate, with the lips D D slightly overlapping the under surface thereof to support and confine the plate between the arms. The tension'of the elastic band or springC will operate to hold and secure the claspingarms so firmly to the plate as that the latter may be lifted and carried thereby without danger of its accidentally dropping or slipping therefrom, and the plate may be supported thereby 011 edge, as shown in Fig. 1, or supported in a developing-tray, T, as shown in Fig. 2, the lips D D, serving in the latter case to uphold the face of the plate above the bottom of the tray permit a free circulation of the bath fluid over the same, and prevent its adhesion to the bottom or suction.

15 jaws together.

The plate may he lifted from the bath by means of the arn'ls, and examined and, if need be, replaced without soiling or staining the fingers by their contact with eheiniea s in the bath.

The arms l3 13 may be made of meta hard rubber, gntta-pereha, or any suitable material adapted to the purpose.

I am aware that clamps and olas patented for use stoeking-sueporters and napkilrholders', which are eonstraeted of two spring arms or jaws made to spring automatically apart, and to he elosed sliding ring or loop, or a lever adapted to force the ll iy device differs essentially )shave eeen therefrom in that the arms are combined with a spring operating autoinatieallyto elosenpon and hold an interpose:

plate.

"VA N G l NEON ST; 1 r v n ita -M sses. 

